Starting every year with a month-long celebration of mentorship is timely and oh-so-appropriate as we all work to get the New Year started right. As Infinite Family’s Net Buddies come back to start a new school year, we know their Video Mentors are just as eager to reconnect as they are. We also know that Video Mentors are the one extra element in our Net Buddies’ lives that give them a HUGE extra boost toward success in school, work, and life.
December 2022 grades have just started to come out. Based on historical results, we expect top-notch marks from our Net Buddies. Why do we have such high expectations?
It’s NOT because Infinite Family uses grades or past performance to pick our Net Buddies – Infinite Family works with ALL teens who are willing to work hard to build a better future.
And, it’s NOT because their families are able to pay for extra services – Infinite Family provides access to laptops, internet and experienced adults for mentoring and tutoring at NO cost to students growing up in township communities.
Infinite Family has high expectations for our Net Buddies for two reasons:
- Our Video Mentors have proven their dedication to their Net Buddies’ success, and
- We know that since 2008, 100% of our mentored 12th grade students have qualified for advanced studies – almost 90% for South Africa’s top-tier universities.
So yes, our expectations may sound surprisingly high for teens dealing with the extreme poverty and violence that accompanies their young lives. But we also have 16 years of experience recording them consistently beating the odds! Stay tuned for the 2022 results.
In the meantime, we applaud our incredible Infinite Family Video Mentors for more than 3,800 mentoring sessions they provided as volunteers in 2022:
Abimbola Adegbite | Dumfer Adjei-Frimpong | Jo-Ann Alperin | Amelia Ante | Fiona Bacon | Angela Beekers-Uberoi | Floortje Beemsterboer Jessica Bern | Linda Blankenburg | Elana Bowman | Deena Boykin | Beth Chepelsky | Crystal Chilman | Lauren Coleman | Mike Collins | Katie Compagni | Millicent Cooley | Kaitlyn Cooper | Lilian Cordoba Vazquez | Noma Cristovao | Paulina Cruz | Tensaye Dagnachew | Glenda Damerell-Moss | Melissa Danvers | Sheena Davis | Paula Derrow | Maria Venia Dorog | Sally Downie | Charlene Dubay | Maryam Enders | Thibault Ethuin | Joan Fischer | Sandra Fisher | Rebecca Flecken | Nicolet Forde | Jagruti Gandhi | Jagruti Gandhi | Jennifer Gibson | Mary Gichure | Kimberly Ginyard | Marie Girschewski | Max Glaser | Babu Gounder | Julia Grzywinski | Gail Harper | Michelle Hastick | Laura Henderson | Saeed Hendricks | Rhonda Herrera | Alyssa Holcomb | Douglas Huffaker | Mulalo Hulumeni | Amy Humbert | Nacor Ibanez | Tiber Jain | Sarah Johnson | Regi Jones | Debra Kahn | Magdaleen Kemp | Alice Kim | Samuel Kratsas | Angela Lambson | Nikolette LaSalla | Marina Lovejoy-Black | Holly Maguire | Rana Mansour | Shell Marston | Rita Martinez | Raz Mason | Beena Matthew | LaShonda Maxfield | Ellen Mazzeo | Vasundhara Mehta | Tonia Mendinghall | Rinal Mohamed | Babalwa Mpati | Nomsa Mpongwane | Madhu Nagabhushan Nadig | Kate Norton | Karin OConnor | Hanniella Ouedraogo | Aparanji Pagidipati | Brianna Parkinson | Nicole Parks | Valerie Parris | Tara Patale | Louis Peltier | Dennis Perry | Jennifer Potter | Chaman Prem | Francesca Rebulla | Michelle Renecle | Mariana Rocha | Brandon Rodriguez | Marlene Rodriguez | Brandon Rodriguez | Oriana Rosen | Keith Rubio | Patsy Russell | Rosie Salomon | Ashwini Sangaraju | Ernie Schmidt | Maria Schultz | Zack Schwartz | Raven Scott | Jamie Seidel | Vasudha Sharma | Phillis Shayi | Dan Sherry | Dhara Shihora | Anureet Sidhu | Karen Simpson | Ann Spivack | Amy Stewart | Laurene Stopford | Mallika Subandh | Parvathavarthini Subburam | Martha Talenga | Eshalea Temple Bernacet | Ronnie Toumayan | Oumar Tounkara | Van Tran | Ekemini Udom | Runel Uguru | Nina Vaughan | Melissa Warren | Collette Watson | Alex Weir | Amber Williams | Adela Winter | Javonn Wright | Juanita Wright | Lesley Yaniv | Keli Yeats | Sungpil Yoon | Rochelle Young | Katarzyna Zajac-Uznanska
Thank you ALL!